‘Friends of’ Groups

Here follows a list of green spaces volunteer groups based across Brighton & Hove. They undertake an array of conservation type activities. If you are interested in volunteering then please select and contact one of the groups. If you have any questions or feedback please use our ‘Contact Us’ link.

If you would like to join Brighton & Hove Green Spaces Forum please fill out the membership form

Group name

Group information

Group contact

Albion Community Garden

Albion Community Garden is an urban space on Albion Street. We are supported by local small businesses and B&H City Council. Our aim is to create opportunities for gardening and growing food through newly formed friendship groups for the benefit of social and ecological good. Visit our garden where the gate is always open.

Having created one of Hove’s first Local Nature Reserves, linking the town to the Downs, we protect and enhance Benfield Hill and Valley. We encourage community involvement. Support is always needed to preserve the character of this important area. If you would like to help in any capacity, please contact us.

Since 1989 the Friends group is now a local institution focused on enhancing the park. We improve the area through our own planting program. We hold community events and support neighborhood organisations and community groups that wish to use the park.

The city is full of archaeological sites, and more are found every week. If you intend digging any holes or open areas, contact the Society who can conduct watching briefs to monitor and check for archaeology.

Checking the flocks of sheep used to conservation graze chalk downland green spaces across the city. Volunteers are trained in sheep welfare and grazing hardware. They can then choose sites and dates from a rota.

Cityparks Rangers run a conservation volunteering group that works in parks and nature reserves across the City. Currently meeting every Friday at 10am, but looking to expand to other days. We send out an email once a week with details of the task and location, if you want to come, you just reply to the email. Some people come most weeks, others just a few times a year. If you’d like to go on the list, contact us.

We meet regularly to help maintain this local wildlife site and pathway from New England Road to Brighton Station. We promote awareness of Brighton Greenway's wildlife significance and unique industrial heritage.

On the corner of Brunswick Road and Western Road a small patch of land has been reclaimed to the side of the Co-Op The supermarket granted permission to use the run down area as a memorial garden. Each November people add remembrance crosses with the names of their lost loved ones and local residents help with the upkeep.

Our group tends the green space that is Brunswick Square Gardens.
Since 1997 we have improved the area by reinstalling cast-iron railings, planting new trees and installing two decorative beds to their original design. We welcome volunteers to help with planting, weeding and litter picking.

Based within the historic Conservation area of Brunswick and Adelaide includes Brunswick and Palmeira Squares and Adelaide Crescent and the various Friends' groups work with the Council who maintain these areas.

The Buzz Club is a ‘citizen science’ charity based at Sussex University which aims to engage people with pollination research and insect conservation. Members collect data from gardens and green spaces which helps us learn about the fascinating world of insects. We also work with local schools to help create more wildlife-friendly habitat. If you’d like to know more or are interested in volunteering please get in touch.

Our aims are to improve the environment in Coldean for the benefit of the residents. We have planted trees, bulbs, and are currently upgrading our local park. We hold monthly meetings to engage with our residents.

Our mission is to provide carefully researched and qualified, information and advice, to all members of the community on matters that have an effect on the future of our planet, locally, nationally and globally.

The Ingram Crescent Estate consists of 401 flats within the Ingram Crescent areas on the North side of Portland Road. The gardening group is open to all residents of the Estate and immediate locale. Join the weekly gardening group (usually Sundays) where work is ongoing reclaiming the Rose Garden.

We aim to protect, conserve and enhance wildlife, landscape, archaeological features, to provide public access and other recreation, to promote environmentally sustainable activities, to encourage community involvement and understanding and to secure adequate resources to achieve our aims.

We are a warm welcoming gardening group that gets together twice a month on a week day evening to make a difference to this central Brighton park to make it more inviting and beautiful for everyone to enjoy. We hold regular events and are making a community hot spot out of this green space.

We aim to address food poverty in Brighton & Hove by growing and supplying fresh allotment produce to food banks and community centres. We run a food growing group on Fridays and encourage volunteers from the local area, including those who are unemployed and/or socially isolated and actively involve them in planning how we use the plot over the growing season.

Located between the landmark Floral Clock and Hove seafront lawns, the elegant square and crescent sweep around two gardens within the Brunswick Town Conservation Area. There are many volunteering opportunities.

Plot 22 is a community of volunteers with an allotment garden on the Weald Allotments, Hove, providing communal gardening, outdoor cooking and crafting opportunities for local residents, families and groups experiencing additional challenges. Reducing isolation and expanding the relationship with the natural world it offers a haven of shared belonging.

We are an independent organisation. Conservation work is carried out every Thursday morning on behalf of various parties, including local ‘Friends of’ groups, the city council (via the Friends of groups and their Rangers), the National Trust, church authorities and charities.

This community garden is cared for by volunteers and supported by Brighton & Hove Food Partnership. The volunteer group meets weekly and grows fruit, veg and flowers using organic methods. The garden is open to everyone to enjoy and is a tranquil spot to watch the world go by or the get inspired to grow your own. Volunteers always welcome.

We are a happy voluntary group of seven on the committee, and nearly 500 members. We exist to promote and protect the park. We provide regular updates on issues that affect the park and organise events that celebrate the park and bring the park community together.

Orchard maintenance, scrub clearance, mulching and tree planting on four acres of open access land run by the Brighton Permaculture Trust. The area has nature and conservation in mind as well as being a community space. Volunteers very welcome on Sundays and Tuesdays.

Our aim is to help Rottingdean look blooming good. We are a group of about 12 volunteers who plant and maintain various areas and planters around the village. We also support village entries in the South and South East in Bloom Competitions.

The Secret Garden lies behind St. Leonards Church Hove. Neglected and growing wild, volunteers have transformed the area which is beautiful as well as productive. Raised beds growing plants and vegetables, a wild area with a pond and 4 bee hives encourage visitors to enhance their knowledge of growing and wildlife.

We aim to promote the preservation, restoration and improvement of St Ann’s Well Gardens for the education and benefit of the public. By associating the local authority and local community in a common effort to improve social welfare for recreation and leisure time.

The Stanmer Preservation Society was founded in 1971 and is a charity committed to improving, protecting and preserving the village of Stanmer and its environment for the benefit of the public. Stanmer has recently been successful in winning Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund funding.

The volunteering team meet at the Lutyens designed garden of The Grange on the 3rd Thursday of every month. They welcome gardeners across the spectrum of knowledge, from none to lots and provide tools and refreshments. Starts at 10.30 finishes around 12.30. If you would like to join them please email.

The Level Communities Forum works closely with the city council to help provide community activities and events so that this restored park continues to offer a warm welcome to all. The Level has a full-time onsite Garden Manager, who also runs a weekly volunteer garden club. The park was restored thanks to a major grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Big Lottery Fund in 2013.

Under the guidance of the on-site Garden Manager, you’ll have the opportunity to learn a whole host of new things, make new friends and be part of the team that cares for one of the largest public spaces in the city. We meet every week on Thursday mornings.

Three Cornered Copse is a triangle of partly wooded downland that separates the residential streets of Woodland Drive and Woodland Avenue in Hove. The group meet together regularly to keep it beautiful for the love of it.

Our group is for anyone in the local community who uses or cares about Victoria Park, Portslade and wants to see better and new facilities in the park. Help us fundraise, campaign and influence to create a better environment for all park users.

A group of volunteers who concern themselves with all aspects of looking after Waterhall Valley and Downland. Winter sheep grazing helps maintain sections of the conservation area and bramble and scrub clearance enable paths to be kept open. Native tree and shrub planting continues to improve the local environment.
We hold work days every 3 months. All ages welcome.

We promote and protect Westdene Green as a multipurpose community space and bring people together through events and community action. At The Barn on the Green we aim to help build a more connected community by creating a focal point for a variety of enriching activities, social events and information and by engaging local people of all ages.

The Friends of William Clarke Park is a not-for-profit community organisation with a mission to improve a small green space (also known as 'The Patch') situated in the Hanover and Elm Grove ward of Brighton and Hove and promote it as a focus for local community life. We are dedicated to making the space a cleaner and safer environment for all local people to enjoy and to create events to bring the community together.

TWEACK manage both Withdean and Westdene Woods and a small strip of woodland between Eldred Avenue and the railway, now designated as a Local Nature Reserve (LNR.) Since 1993 members have helped purchase land, made significant improvements to access, organised working groups and held events.

We hold work-days in the park in conjunction with FO Withdean Park and Cityparks – to fill in the holes. There’s no such thing as a poo fairy.! Complimentary bags at the top and bottom of the compound.